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Spotify grows to 75 million active users and 20 million paid subscribers globally

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Spotify has a lot to lose should Apple Music catch on with music lovers. Following Monday's WWDC 2015 keynote which saw, amongst other things, the announcement of Apple's ten bucks per month on-demand music subscription service, Spotify has felt compelled to share the latest stats to reinforce its position as the world's leading streaming music provider.

As of May of this year, the Swedish startup had more than 75 million active users, of which more than 20 million are on one Spotify's paid Premium tiers.

Dreaded Wi-Fi and networking issues are a thing of the past in iOS 9 and El Capitan

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 10, 2015

It's no secret Mac users are always more or less complaining about various Wi-Fi problems.

But if Apple's support forums and the Interwebs are an indication, the level of annoyance with the networking stack in Apple's desktop and mobile operating systems has seemingly skyrocketed following the release of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite in the fall of last year.

Indeed, my MacBook Air running Yosemite drops Wi-Fi connection several times per day and takes about thirty seconds to re-connect to my home Wi-Fi after waking from sleep. Before Yosemite, I would be online literally as soon as I opened the lid.

Having installed El Capitan on my MacBook Air yesterday along with iOS 9 on my iPad Air, I'm happy to report that the vast majority of Wi-Fi problems plaguing users have become a thing of the past, here's why.

You probably shouldn’t update to watchOS 2 unless you’re genuinely a developer

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated June 11, 2025

Every time a beta is released, we always provide tutorials for those of you who may be developers, but to be honest, we know that even some of you non-developers with paid access to developer accounts will upgrade to the betas as well. Of course, that's your own decision.

But with watchOS, things are different. You really shouldn't upgrade to watchOS 2 unless you truly are a developer, or at the very least, you should thoroughly understand what you're getting in to. Why is this? We explain in this post.

New El Capitan features Apple didn’t talk about during WWDC 2015 keynote

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 10, 2015

Monday's WWDC 2015 keynote talk was a jam-packed day of announcements that included iOS 9, OS X El Capitan, watchOS 2, Apple Music, the News app and updates to Apple Pay, so much so that Tim Cook had to immediately cut to the chase and skip his opening round of business updates (“Everything is going fine”, he joked).

There just wasn't enough time to talk about every little enhancement and nice-to-have so Apple execs focused on big ones that make for great headlines while relegating a bunch of platform updates, that mostly matter to developers anyway, to a single slide.

My colleague Cody already compiled an interesting list of nearly three-dozen features in iOS 9 that Apple didn't talk about during the keynote. If you've found his post compelling, you may be interested in my list of technological improvements in OS X El Capitan that Apple didn't show on stage.

Apple confirms it’s collecting street-level imagery for “future Maps updates”

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 10, 2015

Remember those secretive vans that were spotted driving around the country for quite a few months now?

It's been previously confirmed that the vehicles were registered to a third-party commissioned by Apple, prompting all kinds of speculative remarks.

Wednesday, Apple put an end to speculation by publishing a new section on its webpage dedicated to Apple Maps which confirms that the vehicles are collecting data for future Apple Maps updates.

Not only would collected data improve the accuracy of Apple's mapping service, but the wording clearly implies that a Google Street View-like feature is in tow for Apple Maps.

Relook review: incredible editing tools for portrait photos

Lory Gil ∙ June 10, 2015

Whenever I see a picture of myself, I always notice my flaws. Whether it is redness on my cheeks, lines under my eyes, or that age spot on the right side of my face, I see that more than I see the overall picture.

With Relook, you can fix all of those flaws and give your subject great skin, a wider smile, and perfect lighting, every time. We've got an app review of Relook for you today.

Tech Armor HD Clear Ballistic Glass Screen Protector for iPhone 6

Lory Gil ∙ June 10, 2015

As much as we want to keep our iPhone 6 screen totally unobstructed by anything that takes away from the smooth look and feel, we still want to protect our display from unfortunate accidents, like scratches or cracks.

Tech Armor has a Ballistic Glass Screen Protector that keeps your iPhone 6 screen from accidents while maintaining the feeling of smooth glass and clarity of the HD screen.

GM announces CarPlay support for 2016 Cadillac models

Cody Lee ∙ June 9, 2015

General Motors announced today that 2016 model year products from its luxury car division Cadillac will feature enhanced connectivity and control thanks to the addition of CarPlay and Android Auto. The move is part of a broader enhancement to CUE, Cadillac's infotainment/user experience portal.

GM says that CarPlay will debut in all 2016 Cadillac models that feature CUE's 8-in multitouch screen expect the SRX Crossover vehicle. Production on 2016 models will begin this summer, except for the SRX, which is moving to an all-new generation in early 2016. Android Auto will debut in late 2016.

Vine updated with new search feature for finding and discovering videos

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 14, 2018

Twitter updated its 6-second video sharing app Vine today, bringing the iOS client to version 3.4. The change log only includes a single item, but it's a significant one for users who have ever had trouble tracking down a clip: proper search.

Since its inception, or close to it, users have been able to search Vine for users and hashtags, but this returned extremely limited results, and made it nearly impossible to discover or track down older, popular videos. But that changes today.

Apple Music and the S-word

Sébastien Page ∙ June 9, 2015

While following the keynote yesterday and trying to cover the event at the same time here on iDB with the rest of the team, there seemed to be one word I didn't hear Eddy Cue pronounce: streaming. I actually made a note of it in our Let's Talk iOS episode dedicated to WWDC 2015.

It seemed odd that the word wouldn't even get a mention. To confirm the omission was on purpose, I took a look at Apple's mini-site dedicated to Apple Music, and realized the word streaming is nowhere to found there either. It's like it's not even part of the offer. Is the S-word taboo?

WWDC 2015 keynote posted to iTunes as a downloadable high-definition video podcast

Christian Zibreg ∙ June 9, 2015

Following promotional footage for Apple Music that the Cupertino company posted to its YouTube channel along with the inspirational 'App Effect' video, the entire keynote presentation has now been uploaded to iTunes and made available to everyone in the form of a video podcast.

In case you haven't had a chance to sit through the whole keynote talk yesterday, you can now download the video to your Mac, iPhone, iPod touch or iPad and watch it on your own time.

A look at iOS 9’s jailbreak-inspired features

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

iOS 9 has brought a lot of new features to the table, and many of those features have been borrowed, whether by coincidence or not, from already existing jailbreak tweaks. In this post, I summarize some of the tweaks that have been natively added to iOS 9 beta 1. Did your favorite tweak make the cut?